Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel - Chapter 608
Chapter 608: Mystical (1)
A horse that galloped through the air when it wasn’t the rainy season.
The notebook of strange stories that the village chief left me didn’t mention how much it sparkled, but that wasn’t important. As this was a sudden encounter, I had to think fast. The notebook did advise me that nothing bad would happen as long as I didn’t attack or approach it.
But doesn’t that mean we’ll just have to let it go?
To be honest, I couldn’t help but gulp with anticipation when I saw the horse. It felt as if I had witnessed a legendary monster.
What do I do?
Since the village chief had gone out of his way to warn me in the notes, this thing was probably dangerous. However, if we could successfully hunt it, our reward would be proportional to that danger.
Such was the law of Dungeon and Stone. With great risk came great reward.
“Oh! It’s getting further away!”
“Shouldn’t we do something? It’s definitely a new type of monster…!”
“Stay in your positions and wait for the commander’s order!”
In the end, I made my decision. There was a chance that the horse held a clue to help us escape that not even the village chief knew about.
Let’s let it go for now.
However, this was neither the time nor the place. We weren’t on solid ground, and our forces were even divided over four different ships. Since I didn’t know how dangerous this horse was yet, I concluded it would be wiser to try and attempt a raid later when we were better situated and had planned for it.
Bzzt, bzzt.
I gripped the message stone as if I were holding a walkie-talkie and said, “Do not attack the monster you see up in the air. Commander’s order.”
The moment I spoke, the command of the barbarian commander echoed out to all the leaders of the expedition group. It went without saying, but no one ignored my order and tried to act independently.
Tap.
After standing at the bow of the ship, I clicked my tongue as I watched the horse.
recede into the horizon.
Still, I hoped to see it again in the future.
One piece of advice you would need to know to live a frugal life in Rafdonia was that 99.9 percent of the money that circulated in the world was put into the market via the Dimensional Square inspection office. It was the same reason its currency was named the “stone” as well. A coin worth one hundred stones was worth that much in mana stones.
Splash!
To put it another way, we were currently spending about five hundred thousand stones per hour by constantly fueling the mana propulsion system at maximum capacity. And that only went for one boat.
“Using money does make this a lot faster,” I mused.
Even the aquatic monsters we sometimes encountered couldn’t even attempt to board our vessel because of how fast the boat was going.
“Auyen, at this pace, how long will we take?”
“I think the estimated time has been halved, commander.”
We had cut down the month of travel to just fifteen days.
Well, if we hadn’t gone to Library Island first after exiting the stone door, we wouldn’t be so pressed for time.
But what’s the point of regretting it now?
Still, thanks to the engine operating at full capacity, we were able to make up for the few days spent on the detour. It did, however, drain quite a bit of our mana stone reserves.
“Hahaha! Did you see that? We’ve already burned one million stones! Ah, I guess it’s 3.78 million since there are four boats?”
…It’s four million stones, Ms. Fenelin.”
“Hahaha! By the way, this is fun!”
Ainar was given the role of navigation assistant and shoveled the mana stones into the mana propulsion engine whenever Auyen gave her the signal. She seemed to enjoy burning through so much money.
That said, there were a few people who couldn’t stand to look at how many mana stones we were wasting.
“So it’s fifteen days until our destination…” Raven lamented.
“How much will it be for all four boats?”
“I don’t know the exact amount, but probably enough to buy a decent mansion in the good part of the city.
“Hoh…”
Honestly, I held the same sentiment. Although we were using the mana stones brought in by the expedition group when they entered Basement Floor 1, just looking at this display hurt my heart a bit. Still, it was a necessary cost. The less time it took to reach Rainbow Island, the better.
“It’s because of the rainy season, right? The reason we’re speeding along like this.”
“It can’t be helped. If we take a month to get there, the rainy season will have started again.”
Our destination, Rainbow Island, was shrouded in mystery. We needed to get there before the rainy season so we could get as much time as possible to explore.
“That’s why I’m even more curious now. Why did you go down there by yourself, Mr. Yandel? From what I can tell, doing whatever you did was of higher priority to you than saving us more time for the island.”
“Oh, that…” I thought for a moment, then explained the existence of Hamsick and told Raven that I had taken it out of the island with me..
“That monster appeared in the rift? So you were wondering if we could get that monster’s help in the future?”
…You could look at it that way.”
“Hmm…” Raven just had a contemplative expression on her face and didn’t say much else for a while. “Oh, right. Now that we’re on the subject of secrets.”
“Yeah?”
“That flower crown. I came up with a name for it.”
So, she had finally decided. She hadn’t said anything to me about it for the past few days, so I figured she was just going to keep the name to herself. “What is it?”
…Flower Crown of Anguish,” Raven responded quite shyly, then even went on to explain her reasoning even though I hadn’t asked her for it. Something to do with the flower crown giving a mental immunity buff but also had a huge downside, so one needed to make a difficult choice to use it.
Hesitatingly, she asked, “How is it?”
Well, I didn’t know. Maybe it would’ve been better if she just said she had been in anguish because she had such a difficult time coming up with a name for the item.
Instead, I said, “It’s good.”
“Heh, right? Then you need to keep your promise, okay? When you reveal this item to the world, you need to use this name and you have to tell everyone that I gave it that name. Ah, and of course, I am its researcher as well.”
“Got it.”
After giving her my affirmation, Raven disappeared with a satisfied smile on her face, and the voyage continued without any particular incidents. I spent most of my time just chatting with my allies and the rest patrolling or going back to my room to test the waters with Hamsick.
“(Hamsick, have you been well?)”
“(…Take me back.)”
“(We’ll experiment with near-death experiences today. I hear that right as someone feels like they’re about to die, people can remember things they forgot-)”
“(No! I’m not doing it! Never!)”
Wow, so sensitive. It was pretty vocal when I first started to test a few things.
“(Hmm, maybe it became completely dejected after repeated failure,)” I mumbled to myself.
Hamsick became enraged. “Squeak!” It was the cute squeak Hamsick made when it was truly angry. Of course, other people only heard it as a terrifying howl. When I brought Raven to my room not long ago, she went white as a ghost and ran away.
“(Don’t get so mad. I was joking about testing the near-death experience. Oh, I brought you something you might like,)” I said, bringing out a few books I got from Raven. Hamsick’s anger was immediately replaced with joy.
Hah, it’s like raising a kid.
The book was written in the ancient language so Hamsick, who only spoke the ancient language, could read it. It wasn’t even a storybook or anything like that either. However, Hamsick seemed to enjoy it as its focus never wavered from the book, and I just laid down in the bed next to it and rested.
One day, two days, three days, four days…
Some days later while I was waiting in my room, Ainar came looking for me.
“Bjornrn!”
“I told you to call me commander, not Bjorn-”
‘Auyen said that we’ll get to our destination in an hour!”
Hah, we were finally there. It was time to bring up our loosened guard once more.
After heading to the wheelhouse, I found Auyen grasping onto the helm while Auyen grasping onto the helm while studying the map with a serious expression on his face.
“Ah, commander. You’re here.”
He was my navigator and the only person in the Anabada Clan who called me commander, like I asked.
“Ainar told me that we’ll soon be at our destination?”
“Yes, that’s right,” he confirmed.
“Are you sure? Didn’t you say yesterday that we’d arrive around the afternoon today?”
“After some point, the wind began to blow again so I had to recalculate everything.”
Wind… Well, I did notice how my hair was flapping about as soon as I got on deck.
I went up to the handrail to see the water was much rougher than before.
If waves start to approach you during the rainy season, immediately stop whatever you’re doing and look for a place to hide.
Those words came from the village chief’s book of strange stories, but I got the feeling that he wasn’t talking about whatever I was looking at. It wasn’t the rainy season either. Rougher waters didn’t necessarily mean waves were crashing into US.
“So, are you confident in this new calculation?”
“Yes,” Auyen affirmed. “I’ve checked it multiple times while keeping the altered speed in mind.”
“If you say so. Good work.”
After receiving Auyen’s report, I used the message stone to inform the other ships that we would soon arrive at our destination, and that they should be ready for whatever situation we may encounter.
“Erwen! Anything yet?”
“No! I can’t see anything yet!” Even though we were pretty close to our destination, Erwen from the crow’s nest still couldn’t see anything.
We lowered our speed a little and drifted forward, but we then suddenly entered a windless zone. The boat stopped as well. The reason our boat, which could move even without wind thanks to the mana propulsion system, stopped moving was simple.
“We’re here, commander.”
We had arrived at our destination.
“Are you sure?” I pressed.
“I’m not certain if this is the place of the pillar of light we saw on that day…but I am certain that this is the place we marked as our destination on the map.”
“Hmm…” I didn’t doubt Auyen’s words or his skills. Although we saved him while hunting plunderers, he was talented enough to amaze the skilled navigators who came down with the expedition group. If he was sure of it, then it must be so.
That, and when we arrived at the place, the ominous winds that had been blowing also suddenly stopped.
I had to change the way I was thinking. We had arrived at our destination, but we still couldn’t see anything. There had to be a reason for it.
“Then it’s one of two things.”
“…Pardon?”
“Either it’s in the ocean, or it’s up there.”
“Ah…”
No one reacted to my words, as if I was speaking in tongues.
Islands like that existed on the sixth floor as well. A submarine island where Deep Sea Giants could be spotted, and the storm cloud island which had been pushed back in the priority of exploring due to a lack of time.
“We’ll check under the water first.”
I guessed that it was more likely to be below the ocean if it was hidden. I mean, the entirety of Basement Floor One was an ocean, right?
With that in mind, I ordered the anchor to be lowered to check how deep the ocean was.
“Commander! We still haven’t reached the bottom after using all our rope!”
How deep was it if the anchor of the military vessel couldn’t reach?
It only raised more suspicions in my mind.
…I guess we’ll have to go down ourselves.”
I picked a few talented individuals and created a special unit, then attached an oxygen tank(wizard) to each of their backs before sending them down.
I wanted to go down with them….
“You must not!”
…but I had no choice but to smother that thought at the deputy commander’s shout.
He came over to me, demanding to know why I would need to do something so dangerous and for me to trust the talented individuals selected by the palace.
“You say all this, but you let the count enter the rift without a problem.”
“I did. And on that day, our expedition group temporarily went without a leader.”
“Uh…” I had nothing I could say to that.
However, after his earlier confession about how he couldn’t handle a position with such responsibilities, I got a sense of what his true reason was for stopping me from going down.
It’s a shame I can’t go and explore myself, but I guess I’ll just relax here.
I was left to just wait quietly on the boat, but the first underwater exploration ended sooner than expected.
It was a failure. It wasn’t as if the ocean was filled with monsters or that there were so many obstacles in the way either.
“…We couldn’t find any ground to stand on no matter how deep we went.”
They dove, sinking as far as their oxygen tanks(wizards) allowed, but they couldn’t see a thing.
I didn’t bother with a second underwater exploration, concluding that trying again wouldn’t yield any different results.
“Then we’ll have to check above.”
Naturally, we decided to explore the sky.
“Go, investigation captain!”
After letting the wizards who went down into the water rest for a bit, I got them to cast float magic to get them airborne.
…I’m glad to have chosen research back then.
Raven had approached me at some point and had a hand on her chest in relief.
“Also, this just caught my attention, but why does the investigation department have an investigation captain, but the research department is just the research department head?”
…You’re curious about the strangest things.”
“You didn’t put any thought into naming these roles, did you?” It wasn’t that I didn’t put any thought into them, but it was true I didn’t think too hard on them. “That’s not important. Go and check from above. If they start falling or something, it’ll be your job to catch them.”
“Sure.”
We spent a good while being wary of anybody falling out of the sky above us.
However, contrary to our worries, the investigation captain and the wizards of the investigation department landed safely back down on the boats.
“The winds became too strong around 650 feet in the air, so we weren’t able to climb higher.”
Maybe it was to be expected, but the first sky exploration also failed. However, unlike the underwater exploration, it wasn’t a complete failure.
“However…one of the members says they saw something above right before we began to descend.”
If that wasn’t a mistake, then there was something in the sky.
The problem is how we can get up there….
It was time to ignite my imagination as a gamer.
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